Robert Bateman Presents "Haida Spirit

"On a visit to the Queen Charlotte Islands, a Haida elder guided my wife, Birgit, and me to a secluded spot on a peaceful bay. There, Bill Reid’s canoe sat at a lonely anchorage. It was Reid who directed the hollowing of the 50-foot canoe from a single ancient red cedar according to traditional Haida designs, following their traditional method. The canoe was the first of its kind in almost one hundred years. Powered by 20 Haida paddlers, it made an epic 558-mile journey from Vancouver to Skidegate and truly earned its name, Loo Taa (Wave Eater). Seeing the canoe was, for me, a kind of spiritual experience. And although there was no raven present on that day, in my mind’s eye, I saw one. To the Haida, the raven is a wily trickster-transformer who created the world, and I could see him, hovering over the canoe, perfectly centered." - Robert Bateman